


Last Hope

by InkedGirl24



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Bad Weather, Bickering, Blood and Violence, Character Study, Childhood Trauma, Confusion, Culture Shock, Drunken Flirting, Drunkenness, Elvhen, Eventual Smut, Explosions, F/M, Flirting, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Grief/Mourning, Hot Chocolate, Hurt/Comfort, Love/Hate, Magical Accidents, Male-Female Friendship, Monsters, Nature, Orlesians, Politics, Racism, Sarcasm, Sassy, Secrets, Slow Burn, Team Bonding, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-25
Packaged: 2018-04-23 06:20:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4866275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkedGirl24/pseuds/InkedGirl24
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well, life really has a habit of kicking me while I'm down, Lana mused darkly while gazing down at the sleeping village below.<br/>The Keeper had sent her to the conclave by herself to settle her into her 'future responsibilities' as the future leader of the clan.<br/>If it hadn't been for Ewan, her fellow hunter and long suffering guardian, pointing out the fact that it was a chance to do something outside of the insular world of the clan she would of flat out refused.<br/>She thought being dumped with the responsibility of 'Keeper in waiting' was bad enough, just because she was the only other mage in her clan, and not even a very good one at that.<br/>Now she had some strange magic oozing from her left palm, the world was ending and almost everyone was convinced she was sent by their 'Maker' to save them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heral- NO!

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my head canon for my Inquisitor, I love the game but I think the story could be sooo much more fleshed out and I had this whole backstory going for my Lavellan and I wanted so many more cut scenes with the companions, but hey! That's what this site's for, amaright?
> 
> I'm sure if your reading this you were also completely in love with that pesky bald apostate that just doesn't get enough screen time dammit!

Well, life really has a habit of kicking me while I'm down, Lana mused darkly while gazing down at the sleeping village below.

The Keeper had sent her to the conclave by herself to settle her into her 'future responsibilities' as the future leader of the clan.  
If it hadn't been for Ewan, her fellow hunter and long suffering guardian, pointing out the fact that it was a chance to do something outside of the insular world of the clan she would of flat out refused.

She thought being dumped with the responsibility of 'Keeper in waiting' was bad enough, just because she was the only other mage in her clan, and not even a very good one at that.

Now she had some strange magic oozing from her left palm, the world was ending and almost everyone was convinced she was sent by their 'Maker' to save them.

Lana snorted undaintily and too a generous swig from the bottle of cheap wine she had nestled into a mound of snow as a make shift ice bucket.  
She had told herself she wasn't hiding from all the shems when she climbed the snow covered hill above the alchemists Adan's hut. She wasn't really hiding, if any of them bothered to look up they would see her small frame amongst the white, legs stretched out, long dark hair shifting in the chilly breeze. 

Oh and lest she forget the glow of her unnaturally bright green eyes, also courtesy of the Breach, they had been a understated grey before her life had gone wonky.

With a huff she flipped her leather hood over her head and flopped onto her back, closing her eyes and enjoying the buzz of alcohol that was pleasantly taking the edge off her ever present anxiety.

She must have dosed off because she jumped a foot when someone sat down beside her.

"I wouldn't recommend sleeping here, you're off to see Mother Giselle tomorrow and horse riding and frost bitten appendages are not my recommendation."

Lana shifted onto her elbows and turned to look at the resident Spymaster, who was gazing down at her with a gentle smile.Smiles had been a rare site in the past few days and Lana felt herself answering the wry grin.

"Drink?" She said, raising the wine bottle with a flourish.

"Oh that's very kind of you but I shall be turning in soon, I was about to go to bed when I saw you up here. I wanted to make sure all was well, the last few days have been.."

The Spymaster didn't finish her sentence, but she didn't need too, grief was written all over her.

"Yes, it has," Lana sighed, unsure of what to say. She was barely coping with everything herself, hence the bottle of booze by her side, she wasn't equipped to comfort anyone right now.

As if on cue the heavy stomp that usually preceded the Seeker Cassandra filled the awkward silence.

Lana immediatley tensed.

It wasn't that she disliked the woman, but...Ok yes, she wasn't exactly feeling warm fuzziness toward to raven hair warrior, but only four days before the woman had been hell bent on beating the "truth" out of her. Not to mention the fact that she wouldn't call her anything but..

"Herald I must speak to you-"

"Nope!" Lana almost shouted as she hauled herself to her feet before the Seeker was within fifteen feet.

Lana could see the woman increase her stomping and the urge to flee flooded her limbs.

"I really must speak with you Her-"

"NOPE!" 

She didn't know if it was the stress, adrenaline or the third of the bottle of wine she had been chugging but she found herself running in the opposite direction. Leaving a slightly stunned Leliana in her stead.

Deciding it was too late to turn back and act like the adult she knew she was somewhere deep down, Lana increased her speed as she reached the rocky edge of the hill and lept onto the roof of Adan's hut.

As her boots hit the wood her sharp eleven ears caught the long list of colourful curses the alchemist bellowed from underneath her as she slid down the icy thatch.

Lana landed on the ground in a crouch just as Adan burst through his front door.

"What's the blazes!"

Lana stood as the shemlen began shouting incomprehensible sentences at her, he was so loud that she was amazed the mage Solas hadn't come out of his own hut to see the commotion.

Lana mumbled an awkward apology before shoving her hands into her pockets and shuffling off hastily, suddenly feeling very sober.

It wasn't until she passed the dwarf Varric, who was hooting with laughter by his tent, that Lana began to giggle herself.

The look of pure shock on Cassandras face and mirth on Leliana's would be plastered behind her eyes for days.

Suddenly life didn't seem quite so dark.


	2. Coco is Born

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief respite from a busy few days in the Hinterlands leads to the discovery of tasty new beverages and a clash of personalities.

Oh Mighty Hunter Ewan

It seems I will be seeing a lot more of the world than you expected!

I know the Inquisition has sent scouts to the clan to explain what has happened but knowing you, stubborn as you are, you won't believe anything they say until you've heard from me yourself.

After an initial bit of confusion at who caused what and almost dying from a random bit of magic sticking out of my hand, all is, if not well, at least improved.

As I am the only person who can seal these rifts that have fallen from the Breach currently looming above us all, I agreed to stay as an agent and help. I'm sure the Keeper is distraught at my a absence, if only for the fact that she is now the only mage in camp.

I won't lie however, though these arnt the circumstances I expected in seeing more of the world I can't say I'm not excited at the prospect of seeing more of it.

You know I'm more comfortable with a bow or knives on my back, and you also know how things a have gone when I've tried using a staff, disaster is an understatement! But I feel it's only a matter of time before my magic is called into question. Which I suppose is understandable, apparently it's unusual for a rogue to also be a mage, who'd of thought?!

As for the company I now keep, you would get along swimmingly with Varric, he's a rather charming and funny dwarf from Kirkwall. He also has the most beautiful crossbow I have ever seen which he has lovingly called "Bianca" (he wont tell me why). Varric is full of stories and has a similar attitude to the Seeker.

Which brings me to Cassandra, she is the for mentioned Seeker and she was also the first person I saw when I woke up. It wasn't the most gentle of awakenings. Knowing you and your love of ballsy women, you would probably fancy the pants off her.

Despite the fact that she terrifies me most of the time, I think there is a lot more to her than stomping and glaring.

Which brings me to the second resident elf Solas.

I honestly don't know what to make of him Ewan. He isn't Dalish, nor is he from a city. He is also a mage and apparantly a expert in all things the Fade. He's also the one who kept me alive while the mark in my hand was trying to kill me, how he did that I cannot fathom but I am grate..

*

Lana placed the quill down just as another huge yawn burst f rom her. 

Exhaustion hung heavily upon her but she was determined to finish her letter before turning in for the night. 

It had been a long few days since her talk with Mother Giselle, who had turned out to be nothing like she expected of a member of the Chantry, though her only prior experience had been Roderick so far, who was a bumbling oaf of a man. 

Since then they had rid the Hinterlands of the fighting templars and mages, fed and basically clothed the residents of the village, saved an Elven mother from suffocating and won over a random cult in the hills. Not bad for three days work. Tomorrow they were headed to a master of horses farm in order to acquire mounts for the inquisition. 

Currently however they were all sat around the campfire in a comfortable silence. 

Varric was sprawled next to her, back against a small bolder, scribbling away in a leather bound journal, glasses perched on the end of his nose. 

Cassandra, ever the practical of the bunch, was cleaning her armour, eyes narrowed as if she could glare the blood and dirt into submission. 

Solas was seated across from Lana, long legs crosses and a huge tome cradled in his lap, a mild look of concentration in his sharp face. Everything about the man's mannerisms was mild, but though she had barely spoken more than a few sentences to him since she first awoke in Haven, something was jarringly off about him.

He spoke mildly and as far as facial expressions go, she expected he would make an excellent card player, but his body language and the few things he had said in retort to Cassandras bumbling attempt at conversation, said something completely different. 

He was the the most confident person she has ever met, though she hadn't met many people up until recently. However it didn't seem to be arrogance, or not at least, for boastings sake. Lana had decided it was simply a fact that he had immense amount of knowledge and it translated into the way he carried himself.

*

Lana didn't realize she was staring at the unusual elf until Varric shifted beside her, causing her to jump slightly. She could hear the Keeper in her mind, scolding her for staring so rudely. It wasnt her fault she found people fascinating! 

Varric awkwardly righted himself beside her and reached for the kettle which he had nestled in the vocalist the campfire.

The dwarf the preceded to scoop some brown powder from a tin in his pack into a ridiculously large mug and pour boiling water from the kettle after it. 

With a sigh, Varric returned to his slumped position against the boulder and began stiring the enormous steaming mug now cradled against his chest. 

"Really Varric? Are you a child," Cassandra said, jarringly loud after such a long silence, Nevarren accent dripping with scorn. 

"What! It helps me sleep," Varric replied, amusement and confusion plastered all over his face, something that seemed to be ever present so long as the Seeker was talking. 

Cassandra it seemed, didn't feel the need to dignify his response with anything more than a unladylike grunt before scrubbing her chest plate with extra vigour.

As Cassandra returned to her work, the most wonderful smell drifted over to Lana from Varrics direction. It was so unique and tantalizing that she found herself sniffing the air like a curious hound. 

"What is that?", Lana blurted, immediatley regretting it when everyone, even the generally uninterested mage across from her, fixed their gazes upon her. 

"Your kidding me, you've never had hot chocolate before?" 

Varric looked at her in what could only be describes as pure horror before grabbing another mug and repeating what he had done for his own mug. 

Solas, obviously deeming the conversation not as gripping as his tomb, returned to the book in his lap, however Cassandra was staring at her and Varric was practically bouncing at the small interaction from her. 

She hadn't exactly been very verbose in the past few days, still overwhelmed at the new people and new environment to really be herself, which was probably a blessing to her companions if you asked her Keeper.

"I don't even know what chocolate is. My clan had herbal teas we made ourselves but nothing that smelled like this."

Lana thanked the excited dwarf as she took the steaming mug from him and immediatley lifted it her face to take a scolding sip.

Her reaction must have been a sight to behold because not only did Varric laugh, but Cassandra let out a breathy huff, a small smile fighting its way onto her hard features. Lana realized that the Seeker was actually quite beautiful when she wasn't looking angry.

"Chocolate is a relatively new commodity Master Tethras, certainly not something that would be high on a Dalish clans list of priorities." 

Lana was so stunned at the fact that the mage had entered into such a frivolous conversation, though he didnt raise his gaze from his book, that she was at a loss for words for a moment before she realized the comment was a barely concealed jab. 

"And what do you know of the Dalish?" Lana almost snapped, cutting Varric off before he could reply to the apostate who was coolly reading as though he had said nothing. 

"I have had a few dealings with clans in my travels." 

He didn't even glance up as he replied and Lana felt her hackles raise at his dismissive attitude. 

"Oh, and what dealings might those be?" 

Ok she definatley sounded pissy now. Ewan would find it hilarious that she was feeling defensive for the Dalish, it was usually herself that was scoffing at the Keeper and traditions that the clans clung so desperately too. But stupid as it sounded, she WAS Dalish, and there for in her mind, it wasn't so bad when she did it, but who the hell did this man think he was to give 'insight' to a stranger about something to which he didnt belong, and with such barley held scorn in his tone.

"I have stayed in a few Dalish camps in the past." 

He still hadn't shifted his eyes from the page before him and after a few beats of silence it seemed he wasn't going to add anything further without prompting. 

Though his expression hadn't changed in the minute this 'conversation' had started, Lana noted that his eyes hadn't shifted from the spot they held on the paper, and they had taken on a glint that wasn't there before. 

Solas was enjoying this and it irritated her all the more. 

What he didnt realize was that she was well versed in arguments, her every other conversation with the Keeper was a butting of heads. 

"Oh, and why was that?" Lana asked, taking a sip from her new favourite drink to hide the grin that was creeping onto her face, mostly due to the fact that Varric and Cassandra were watching the interaction avidly, heads bouncing back and forth like a kittens being taunted with a piece of string. 

"Out of curiosity for the most part, however I also wished to teach what I had learned whilst dreaming in the Fade. Regrettably they did not wish to hear the truths I had discovered and returned to their comfortable ignorance." 

He still refused to look at her and oh so casually flicked to the next page.

"And what 'teachings' would those be exactley, or would imparting your great wisdom be too much for my ignorant pointy ears," Lana didn't bother to keep the venom out of her tone, though she followed it with a harsh smile.

Not that he could see it with his lack of eye contact. 

Finally he looked up and his expression shifted to something that could only be translated to "long suffering.

"I apologise if I have caused offense, that was not my intention. If you are willing to listen, I would be happy to discuss what I have learned with you." 

He was so calm and reserved. The way he now locked eyes with her across the flames making Lana feel foolish for her easy irritability, had she imagined the excited glint in his eye moments before? 

If he did truly know actual hard facts about her heritage ofcourse she wanted to hear it. All history and culture fascinated her, her own included. But the Dalish didn't really KNOW anything for a fact, their traditions were beautiful and familiar, but had always rang hollow with her. She wanted to believe in them, but faith just wasn't something her Keeper had managed to drum into her, no matter how hard she had tried. 

"Another time perhaps, I fear my current exhaustion would make anything you told me slip through one pointy ear and straight out the other," Lana tried a friendly smile, hoping to ease the tension between them. 

"Of course Da'len, when you are ready," Solas nodded briefly, a polite hint of a smile on his lips to answer her more forced one, before returning to his reading. 

The smile slid off her face, she despised the term 'Da'len'. She was in her twenty fifth year, not a "little child", it didn't matter to her that it was a traditional term to her people, it was still a way of putting someone in their place as far as she was concerned. 

"Why thank you Hah'ren, I can barely contain myself," Lana hopped to her feet, half written letter forgotten in the fog of rage clouding her brain. 

She was immensely satisfied when the mages head snapped up in surprise at her poisonous tone, but even now the confusion was incredibly muted in his expression, yes definatley a mean card player there.

Lana excused herself and walked away from the camp, hot chocolate cradled between her palms. 

*

It didn't take long before she had company beside her on the cliff over looking the remains of the templar/mage battlefield. Thankfully it was Varric who plunked himself beside her.

"Yeesh, I'm guessing heights arnt an issue for you huh Coco?" 

Lana turned to fix Varric with a puzzled expression. 

"I have to give everyone a nickname," Varric shrugged unapologetically, "it's just a thing I do." 

Lana huffed a laugh at that and returned to gazing out at the view. 

"Yes, Bianca kind of gave you away with that...and Chuckles." 

Chuckles was the nickname Varric had christened Solas. She had only heard the mage laugh once in the week or so she had been with the inquisition. It was a surprisingly boyish sound coming from the serious man and the name fit him perfectly. 

Coco however... 

"Yeah, so you and Chuckles seem to be getting on surprisingly badly," Varrics eyebrows practically disappeared into his hair line in surprise, causing a laugh to burst from Lana. 

"You thought we would get on well because we're both elves?" 

"Well yeah I guess so, apparently not though huh?" 

Lana hummed in response, unsure of what to say. 

"Well I'm sure time will work things out. You should have seen Hawke and Fenris when they first met. And they ended up being the love of each others lives!" 

Lana sat up a bit straighter at that and gave Varric a look that she hoped conveyed her concern for his mental health. 

"Ha! I'm not saying that you and Chuckles are going to be holding hands and sneaking off for some private time in the future. I just meant that Hawke and Fenris couldn't be any more different. Fenris HATES mages and all things magic but Hawke happens to embody both those things and somehow they managed to work together. Im sure you and Chuckles will work it all out." 

Lana nodded, though she wasn't convinced.

If Varric was right, it was going to take a long time and a lot of patience on her part. 

And patience was not one of her virtues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurrah! 
> 
> So this is my first 'proper' chapter!
> 
> I wanted Varric to give Lana a nickname pretty quick off the bat and I thought, why not have a bonding moment over a tasty drink! (Though I'm more of a mocha fan than just plain hot chocolate)
> 
> I always thought that, as her future job description implies, Lana is incredibly curious and intuitive. I mean, you'd have to be to juggle that many people and politics!
> 
> Which doesn't go hand in hand with religion and the Dalish's 'known' history, which didn't make her popular with her clan.
> 
> Being intuitive of others is also problematic as far as Solas is concerned, I think Lana is going to be a challenge for him and she's going to see through a lot of the bull he somehow gets away with a lot of the time.
> 
> "In my journeys the fade" my arse :)
> 
>  
> 
> P.S. Omg Solas is so hard to write!
> 
> P.P.S next chapter we head back to Haven and Lana helps Cullen defuse as rather arsey mob.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was kind of a prologue to the story, which is always the hardest I think! I just wanted to show you where Lana's head is at, at this stage and set up the fic I suppose.
> 
> At first I was going to have Solas come out of his hut too but decided that when he "dreams in the fade" he has his wards up and is a pretty sound sleeper otherwise. So as Lana didn't go barreling into the wards, I decided to let him sleep and dream about ancient ruins or dancing halla, or whatevs...
> 
> Next chapter we are off to the hinterlands with my two favourite "should be" couple Cassandra and Varric, oh and also Solas, how could I forget!
> 
> There will be chocolatey beverages, the christening of nicknames and butting heads in the next chapter, hope to see you there!
> 
> Ps. Apologies for any grammar/spelling goofs, I'm typing this all using my kindle fire, which has auto correct that sometimes produces interesting results..e.g. Varric is apparently 'Care if' :s


End file.
